Save our Ladies…

By Ovundah Nyeche.

It is no news that in our state, several ladies have been killed recently and if you put all the news together and try to analyze the deaths which are more than 8 now, several things are connected and common.

* Ladies

* Hotel rooms

* Bed

* Dead

* White handkerchiefs

* Strangulated

* Rivers State

* Discovered

And if you put all this together, your mind is likely to run haywire… Is this a serial killing? Are these ritualists? Why hotels or motels? What kind of ladies are targeted?

While we attempt to answer this question, the truth is that every lady who have lost their life, is either someone’s daughter, sibling, mother, spouse, partner, friend or colleague.

‘Dead body no be fire wood.’

So what can be done to stop this menace.

HOTELS

Curiously no 5 or 4 star hotel has had this ugly incidence, meaning that the more secure a hotel is, the less likely this is to happen in or around the hotel.

The Hoteliers association should ensure that members have CCTVs installed in all their entrances, walkway to all their rooms and lobby.

People would tend to behave themselves if CCTVs are installed anywhere, as they know someone is watching.

For motels/ guest houses and other places that do not have CCTVs and do not have the means to install them, they should make sure ID cards of people checking into their rooms are sighted and snapped for record purposes and these ID cards should have passports that match with the bearer.

They should also ensure they have POS machine for transactions as this could help in tracking, phone numbers given by anyone checking in should be dialled to be sure it is authentic.

Also staff should be trained to ensure that no one who checked in with someone, or no one who went to see someone in a checked in room leave without finding out the whereabout of their partner.

Hoteliers should also profile their staff and make sure anyone working with them is properly vetted, as insiders may be part of this.

Any hotel/ motel /guest house which cannot guarantee the safety of her guests, should as well consider doing another business.

LADIES

Being a lady means you are at risk, and having a meeting with anyone including an ‘Uncle’ in any hotel not a 5 or 4 star hotel is a risk on its own and being a risk you have to protect yourself.

Before you go to see anyone anywhere please inform everyone you need to inform and know the name of the person you are going to see, not just Facebook or social media names, as they may not be authentic. Also ensure you are comfortable meeting the person after running a profile search on the person. Let those who would mourn you if anything goes wrong know what is happening and where you are or you are going to.

If you are doing a business transaction that requires delivery of stuff or services to people you don’t know, please kindly use logistics services, there are many of them in the city of Port Harcourt, you must not go yourself.

Whether make up or food services, or hair services, or shoes or clothes, please don’t be in a hurry to meet people where you are vulnerable and you are likely going to be incapacitated if the unexpected happens.

Ladies use your head and not your stomach to reason… The consequences are dire.

If you are an Amalakite, if you are an Amalakite, it is important to note, that it is a very dangerous trade, world over and every outing has no guarantees.

Please if you insist on continuing, then your brain has to be on alert, know the number plate of any car you enter and the make of the car and send it to your loved ones.

Send details of the people you are hanging out with even if they were recommended by your best friends, please inform another best friend and if it is possible make the ‘hangee’ know your people know where you are, and if it is possible decide where you wish to hang out.

But because the above is very difficult in practise as many times drug and substance abuse goes with this trade, it is very important to quite if you can’t control this.

GOVERNMENT

Where do we start from, like a friend said, if you go to our laws, you will discover the problem is not the laws but the enforcement of the laws.

The government must insure that everything that pertains to safety/running of hotels and the likes should be according to the law and defaulters punished. More than barking, they should also bite.

The state ministry of information should play their part to sensitize the public on this issue and since the government is more informed, tell the citizens what to do, to avoid becoming victims.

Just like ebola, this is a public ‘safety’ issue and it should be treated like an outbreak of a deadly disease.

The government must ensure youths are their priority and play their part in helping young people with life saving skills, entrepreneurship etc, and do all within their power to kill the ‘money culture’ threatening to sink our generation.

Sensitization to the ‘at risk group’ as well as those likely going to do this is very key.

The government should also order that an autopsy be conducted on all the corpses to really ascertain the cause of death, as the white handkerchiefs may just be a red herring.

SECURITY OPERATIVES

Like someone said one crime overlooked will likely encourage crime and one crime punished will likely discourage crime.

Who are those arrested? How soon can investigations be concluded? Would it have been faster if someone that knows someone or someone who has a large pocket was involved?

2 years ago a Shell worker was killed in his office in Port Harcourt and with the aid of forensic science, the Rivers State Police command coned down on one suspect whose DNA samples were at the scene of the incidence. He was a staff of a contracting firm with Shell and he confessed his involvement in the murder of the worker and implicated a 2nd suspect who was also arrested.

The police had done it before, they can do it again.

The call log, messages, social media inbox messages, bank transactions of these ladies should be properly investigated.

Security agencies, should be security agencies indeed.

YOU

Shine your eyes ? well well, stay safe, be vigilant, tell someone to #hearword

Again what do I know?

Ovundah Nyeche writes from the Garden city of Port Harcourt.

#hearword #OvdSpeaks #hearwordseries

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